On AJR

Maia Kotrosits concludes our Forum on her work with a thoughtful, generous, and razor-sharp response

Kotrosits: “If historical work is inevitably crafted out of the felt connections and subtexts of a given moment, how do we keep ourselves attentive to the sly, subliminal identifications that perpetually come with it? Can we maintain that attentiveness while preserving a legitimate desire to be in touch with the real experiences of historical others? These questions might even be a cautionary tale for attaching too strongly to the specific historical picture I offered. After all, their moon is not our moon. And anyway, who is this “we” of which I speak? And whose moon is the one hanging over us all now?”

Patel: “We must remember that many of the practices undertaken by our Christian heroes are deemed ‘magical’ in the larger Graeco-Roman literary corpus. Yet, several Christian authors include magical practices among the Church founders’ great deeds, ascribing to them theological significance. They are used to legitimate Jesus’ ministry, to bring about rapprochement between competing factions of Christianity, to inculcate proper behavior, and to solidify the faith of lapsed Christians. As a result, the narration of magical practices serves as type of magical discourse itself, one that complicates the easy picture of magic as a mere polemical charge.”

Articles and News

Katz Center annual Summer School open for applications; this year in Jerusalem.

Open-access journal Scrivium has new issue with articles on Slavonic apocrypha.

Launch of new University of Helsinki research project: “Lived Scriptures in Late Antiquity: Ascetics, Martyrs, and Miracle Workers”.

Rolling call for submissions open at the new Journal of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies.

Free access until February 28 to Lila Corwin Berman’s article on reconceiving Jewishness at AJS Review.

Thoughtful piece at Sententiae Antiquae about the risks of philological pedantry.

Twitter

Here is an wonderfully shiny version of Adam naming the animals from the (aptly-named) Golden Hagadah (Add MS 27210). This manuscript has page after page of beautiful gold images. Browse through them here: https://t.co/C4fiXqJ9Pkpic.twitter.com/h1d3PTbs0e

If you have not registered yet, please sign up for our spring FMN works-in-progress. We will meet at UMW on February 15, 2019. More details are available on the poster @First1000Netpic.twitter.com/q8x39f9M2f